Kent-based quartet The Young Hearts released their debut EP ‘Everything We Left Behind’ at the end of 2015 and with such an impressive first showing, it’s been an agonising wait for more material. With follow-up EP ‘Honestly, I’m Just Thinking’, the band once again showcase their impressive knack for balancing accessibility and raw emotion, continuing their journey along a powerful trajectory.
The wait for material is often hard to endure for fans, and it hasn’t been pain-free for the band either. On the way to a show, front-man Craig Lawrence and bassist Stew Thorpe were involved in a serious car accident, which also involved Lawrence’s girlfriend and his best friend, putting the band temporarily on hold. “I still, to this day, don’t know what happened but I lost control of the car and crashed,” Lawrence explains. “What followed was me getting shipped off to Chatham Hospital and the others going to Ashford Hospital and a few months’ recovery time. Gladly everyone was okay, but it was a scary situation and it put a hold on things and slowed everything down for while.”
After such a harrowing situation, the band could have been forgiven for giving up on the dream, but Lawrence has found solace in music instead, turning the experience into inspiration for songwriting. “It was terrifying, it’s the worst thing I’ve ever experienced. I wrote the lyrics to ‘October’ about the aftermath and I never really thought I’d actually use them for a song. It’s something I didn’t like to talk about, I actually shied away from talking about it to anyone for a long time. Once enough time had passed though I wanted to use them because I’m quite proud of them, so we made a song out of it.”
One of the most appealing aspects of The Young Hearts’ sound is the emotion that oozes from every song and Lawrence’s vocals play a key part, having the vulnerability necessary to pull the listener in, while having the technique and control to produce delicate melodies. Being such an important conduit for the band, most songs start with Lawrence and build from there. “Most of the time it’ll either be lyrics I’ve written with no music to them or just a chord progression with a vocal melody and then I’ll sit at my computer and do a rough demo. I’ll email it to the guys and if they like it we’ll progress it at a practice, they’ll throw their ideas in and we make it a song from there.”
It’s a formula that seems to be working. The four tracks on ‘Honestly, I’m Just Thinking’ continue the style of the debut EP with the kind of refinement that comes from more experience in songwriting. “I just love writing songs and I love people’s reactions to them. First and foremost my concentration is ‘do I like these songs?’ I won’t take an idea to the guys unless I’m happy with it. Having the finished product, I think this is the best thing we’ve ever done so I’m excited to see if we get the same sort of reaction from everyone else.”
Helping to keep some consistency between records, the band returned to Ian Saddler to produce the latest record. “He’s friend of ours and we’ve known him for a long time. Recording can be a bit stressful and tedious and it can take a while so it’s nice to go in with someone you get on really well with. A relaxed atmosphere makes for a more productive atmosphere for us. He gets us; he knows what we’re trying to achieve, so it seems silly to go anywhere else at the moment.”
As a young, upcoming band, finding the time and resources to record while working and playing shows is a difficult schedule to organise, so having a producer as a friend is helpful to balance the reality of being a working band. “He’s not too far from us – we don’t have to travel and get it done in two weeks. We can do a week here, get the drums done, track some guitars, then go back later. It means we can fit it around our working lives. It’s hard for all of us to get the time off work to record when we’d want to be taking that time for touring and playing shows. This way we can record when we need to and do what we can. It’s not like being in a big studio where time is an issue and you don’t have that confidence to try things. Ian allows us to throw different ideas in and see what happens or doesn’t. It works out for the best to keep trying until you’re 100% happy.”
Having crafted a system that works for them, Lawrence is resisting the temptation to think too far ahead. “Whether it’ll lead to bigger things for us great, but the fact that I’ve been a part of something like this is good enough for the time being. This industry is never an easy one and you don’t go into it thinking “I’m going to headline these festivals” you just do it for the love of doing it.”
That said, the band do have a shorter-term objective in mind, and that’s getting the opportunity to showcase their music to festival crowds. “It’s such a good way to reach a wider audience. Especially the big ones – not the huge ones, but we’re aiming for ones like 2000 Trees – those are the kind I’d love to get on. It’s just such a big opportunity to reach people that might not ever get a chance to hear you before. Just to have that presence to get people to recognise the name. They might not necessarily know us but they might see The Young Hearts on a poster and think ‘ah yeah I’ve heard of those’. That’s the aim for next year; that’s hopefully what this EP will do.”
To help to achieve this goal, the band have enlisted the help of Primordial Records and Saviour Management, who have both chosen to support The Young Hearts this year. “We signed to Savior Management in around February/March after James Illsley heard the EP and really liked it. It was the next step for us to get management and get someone to pitch us around so James started messaging labels to see if there was any interest and Primordial loved it and wanted to put it out. Alex [Boezeman] at Primordial is a great guy and he’s put a lot of effort into us so we’re desperate for it to work out so we can return that appreciation and faith.” As a first sign of the label’s faith, Primordial are enabling the latest EP to be pressed to vinyl, something that Lawrence is particularly excited about: “I buy and collect a lot of vinyl myself. It was Alex’s idea to get the screen-print and he was dead set on having a 12” with a screen-print on it. It looks amazing so I’m hoping people pick that up. When we went onto Primordial we weren’t sure if they’d be up for that because they release a lot of their stuff on CD or cassette, but it’s turned out really cool.”
Now that ‘Honestly, I’m Just Thinking’ is in the hands of the public, The Young Hearts are turning their minds toward touring to support the release. “We’re out on the road with Bellevue Days at the start of October and then we’ve got a short headline run at the start of November.” After the Christmas period, the band’s priority will switch to recording more music, a process that is already taking shape: “we’ve actually already started writing an album. We’ve got a lot of demos, we’ve started rehearsing the songs now and we’re looking to hopefully start recording in spring time. Hopefully we’ll have something out towards the end of 2018. We’ll have to work pretty hard and get things done quicker than we have been!”
‘Honestly, I’m Just Thinking’ is out now through Primordial Records. Purchase a copy here, read our review and follow the band on Facebook.